This paper reports that universities spend substantial sums on consultants, advertising, and travel. It argues that reducing these expenses could have prevented the cuts that some of these universities have made to their staff and courses in recent years.

The university sector is in a governance crisis, fuelled by its lack of accountability to staff, students, federal or state governments. This paper explores international models and presents seven recommendations to fix university governance and create an equitable university sector that treats education as a public service.

This document details the next steps in the Government’s reforms of the tertiary education system as part of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2024–25. It covers the establishment of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission and significant reforms to how universities are funded, including through a new managed growth funding system and needs-based funding.

An examination of governance failures in public universities that finds a decline in accountability and transparency, resulting in poor workforce planning, excessive executive pay, and systemic wage theft. The report recommends a federal parliamentary inquiry and a new regulatory framework.

Current negotiations between the Commonwealth and state governments risk cementing long-standing underfunding of public schools according to the accepted Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). This will likely exacerbate recent declines in Australian school achievement and completion.